COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING

COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING

 

û       The community language learning takes its principles from the more general Counseling-Learning approach developed by Charles A. Curran.

û       This method advises teacher to consider their students as 'whole persons'. Whole-person learning means that teacher consider not only their students' intellect, but also have some understanding of the relationship among students feeling, physical reactions, instinctive protective reactions, and desire to learn.

û       The purpose of this method is enable the students to learn how to use the target language communicatively and to learn about their own learning, to take increaseing responsibility for it and to learn how to learn from one another.

û       The teacher's initial role is primarily that of a counselor. The teacher ' counsels' the students. He/she does not offer advice, but rather shows them that he/she is really listening to them and understands what they are saying. By understanding how students feel, the teacher can help students gain insight into their own learning process as well as transform their native feeling, which might otherwise block their learning.

û       According to Curran, there are six elements necessary for nondefensive learning. First of these is security. Next is aggression. The third element is attention. The fourth is reflection. Retention is the fifth element. And the last element is discrimination.

û       As Rardin and Tranel (1988) ahve observed, the Community Language Learning Method is neither student-centered nor teacher-centered, but rather teacher-student-centered, with both being decision-makers in the class.

û       Building a relationship with and among students is very important. In a trusting relationship, any debilitating anxienty that students feel can be reduced, thereby helping students to stay open the learning process. Students can learn from their interaction with each other as well as their interaction with the teacher. A spirit of cooperation, not competition, can prevail.

û       Language is for communication. Curran writes that 'learning is persons', meaning that both teacher and students work at building trust in one another and the learning process.

û       The teacher might prepare specific materials or work with published textbooks. Particular grammar points, pronounciation patterns, and vocabulary are worked with, based on the language the students have generated. The most important skills are understanding and speaking the language at the beginning, with reinforcement through reading and writing.

û       The students' native language is used to make the meaning clear and to build a bridge from the known to the unknown or from the familiat to the unfamiliar. Students feel more secure when they understand everything.

û       The students take a test at the end of a course. A teacher-made classroom test would likely be more of an integrative test than a discrete-point one. Students would be asked to write a paragraph or be given an oral interview. Teacher also would encourage their students to self-evaluate.

û       The taecher repeat correctly what the student has said incorrectly, without calling further attention to the error. The techniques are consistent with sustaining a respectful, nondefensive relationship between teacher and students.